Holidays
were always bittersweet for Bella and me. The sweet aspect was very
obvious—the love that Bella and I share makes celebrating special
occasions meaningful. However, her reluctance to receive gifts
tended to be an obstacle for these events.

We
had many high-tech digital cameras throughout our house. It was an
indulgence, really, as none of us aged and we were careful with the
amount of pictures we took. However, especially since Renesmee was
born, we've been using the camera more often. Rosalie and Alice
took many pictures of her for her baby book, but we tried not to get
any of us mature vampires or Jacob in them, so that there would not
be proof of our non-aging.

It
was one of these picture taking episodes that triggered the memory of
a different camera. It was barely a year ago, but it seemed like a
lifetime. The memory was accompanied by sharp pain, drawing an
anxious look from Jasper. I shook my head the tiniest amount,
letting him know I was fine. This camera was a representation of the
darkest season of my existence, the time without my Bella.

I
knew that it would not feel the same way for her. Human memories
fade, and I know those memories would not be ones that she would
purposefully think of to retain in her immortal mind. I knew she may
have a vague memory of the camera, but I was certain what it would
represent. The fact that it was 35 mm and an inexpensive brand would
remind her of her humble human life, of her loving parents.

Charlie
was an unexpected blessing to our new lives. While he was still on a
"need-to-know" basis with us, and he did not associate the term
"vampire" with our family, the tenor of his thoughts let me know
he had completely accepted the fact that we were not human. Since I
had never been able to clearly see his thoughts, I could not be
entirely sure, but I had seen glimpses of ghosts (which was not too
far of a stretch, what with our pale, cold skin) and also aliens.
However, his thoughts finally settled on something similar to a
werewolf, assuming that we were somehow related to the shape-shifter
that he saw in action. He imagined Bella turning into something
beautiful, like a unicorn.

Renee,
on the other hand, had been a challenge. We were hoping, in the
future, that Bella would be able to have limited contact with her.
We believed that it would've been too suspicious to sever all ties.
Charlie was invaluable to this charade, reassuring Renee that Bella
was fine and was taking to married live beautifully. Due to our
limitless technology, we were able to Photoshop pictures weekly to
send to Renee via email, chronicling our married life, using pictures
of Bella before she was turned. However, Renee was not able to send
any back due to her slow dial-up connection in Florida.

Recently,
Jasper had an idea about conferencing with Renee via "webcam,"
using a black and white camera and adjusting the resolution to come
in just a little fuzzy. Renee would attribute the difference in
Bella's voice to her substandard Internet connection in Florida.
It would not be a permanent fix, but I believe that it had enough
merit to investigate further. Nevertheless, we had all agreed to
delay telling Bella this idea until we were certain it would work.
Alice was searching the future, and Jasper was trying to manipulate
the software to take care of each concern Alice foresaw.

In
the meantime, Bella was missing her mother terribly. I was hoping to
have the conferencing abilities up by Valentine's Day, but it
wasn't going as smoothly as I expected. There were a few issues on
Renee's end that Alice suggested needed to be changed. There was
no way to manipulate the concerns in Florida except in person. I had
made up my mind to employ a general contractor to discretely make the
changes necessary, but thinking of Bella's old 35 mm camera gave me
an idea.

It
would be a challenge to pull off, especially since Bella and I were
unable to be separated, only sharing our attention with Renesmee. We
were completely enjoying married life, basking in the glow if
immortality. If I were to be missing for 24 hours, her suspicion
would ruin any Valentine's Day surprise I would plan. I would need
help—probably everyone in the family's help. Starting with
Alice. Perhaps a girls' shopping trip would be in order to
distract Bella.

"Sweet!"
Alice thought. "It's going to work perfectly." I watched
vague pictures flit through her mind of a grumpy-yet, not suspicious,
Bella. The pictures were blurry because Renesmee was there. But it
was enough of an encouragement to go on to the next part of my plan.
I needed to get Bella's old camera from Charlie's.

Bella,
Renesmee, Jacob, and I drove to Charlie's house. Usually, I did
not appreciate Jacob's seemingly constant presence with my wife and
daughter. However, I was grateful today for his distracting
appearance. Hopefully, he would distract Bella enough for me to
secure the camera from her old bedroom.

When
we arrived at Charlie's, instead of parking in the center of the
driveway as we usually did, I parked off to the side, under the tree
in the front yard. Bella gave me a confused look but didn't
question it. I had opened the sunroof at Renesmee and Jacob's
request—something I prompted them to do before we left. Everything
was in order so far for this plan.

We
got out of the car, moving at human speed. Jacob unbuckled Renesmee
from her car seat, a necessary prop when your father-in-law is the
chief of police. There was no use explaining the absurdity of the
"safety" device to Charlie. When Grandpa is on a "need-to-know"
basis, the fact that his granddaughter is nearly indestructible and
the three adults in the car would never have a wreck, and even if
they did, they would grab Renesmee and wrap themselves around her
well before the impact was a mute point. So when we traveled to see
Grandpa, there was no "lap-babies" allowed. Part of the charade.
We all knew it was important for Renesmee to start playing her part.

Charlie
was watching for us out of the window. The tenor of his thoughts
still betrayed his curiosity with Jacob. I really could not blame
him. Jacob went from being a Cullen-hating, Bella-loving, teenage
runaway to being a member of our family with a very usual obsession
with our daughter. I knew he was dying to ask me about it, to ask
why I allowed it. I did not know how I would answer, because I
barely understood myself why I allowed him to constantly hold my
daughter.

This
thought made me decide that I needed to hold Renesmee. I went to the
backdoor of the Volvo as Jacob finished removing her from her straps
and held out my hands. He noticed me over his shoulder, and I heard
him mentally sigh. "Play
nice, Jacob,"
he told himself. He pasted on a smile and handed her to me. "Here
ya go, Daddy," he said out loud, playfully, and just a little
sarcastically. Bella sighed as us both and held out her arms. "I
NEED her," she said, and I obliged by handing our daughter to her.
Renesmee giggled from being passed around by her three favorite
adults, and buried her head in Bella's hair. Jacob and I grinned
at each other, a little sheepishness in each of our expressions.

"Nessie!"
Charlie called from the doorway. She peeked out between Bella's
hair, and I saw Charlie swallow noisily. He may not have
vampire-sharp vision, but even a human could tell that Renesmee was
growing faster than a normal baby. His worried thoughts were
swirling around me as we stepped into the house.

We
all settled into the small living room making small talk. Charlie
was asking about the rest of the family, and Jacob stretched out on
the floor, and I knew he would be asleep in no time. "I'll be
right back," I said under my breath to Bella, and Jacob opened one
eye to look at me. To Charlie I said, "Will you excuse me? I need
to use your restroom, please." Charlie's thoughts were surprised
at this ordinary request, although he did not specifically know that
vampires had no use for a toilet.

I
walked up the stairs and opened the bathroom door. I closed it
noisily so that Charlie would think I went in. However, at the same
time, I silently opened the door to Bella's old room and slipped
in.

The
bedroom had not changed since the last night she stayed here, the
night before our wedding. I remembered with clarity my brothers
dragging me out for a last-minute hunting trip and unsolicited
honeymoon advice. A quiet chuckle escaped my lips, and I heard
Bella's sudden thoughts. "What are you doing?" she asked me,
her thought words slightly strained at the effort to unshield her
mind.

"It's
okay, love," I murmured. "Just taking a trip down memory lane.
I'll be down in a moment." I waited for Jacob to sleepily ask
Bella a question that I prompted him to, effectively distracting her.
I slipped over to her desk, found the camera in question, silently
opened her bedroom window, and dropped the camera out of the window,
though the open sunroof in the Volvo, and into Renesmee's open
diaper bag, where Alice had arranged Renesmee's clothes to cushion
the fall.

I
slipped back out into the hallway and noisily re-opened and shut the
bathroom door, and came down the stairs. Charlie's thoughts were
focused on Renesmee, Jacob was slowly drifting back into oblivion,
Bella's shield was tightly back in place, and Renesmee was wishing
she could let Charlie know she could talk. She wanted to have the
same relationship with him that she had with the rest of her family.
I caught her eye and shook my head a millimeter to the left, but I
tempered the rebuke with a smile, as I knew she didn't really mean
to expose herself to Charlie. I felt the need to remind her though,
just in case.

Bella
caught my eye, and I was preparing myself for her mental questions,
when Charlie turned to us and asked if we had heard from Renee
recently. Bella recounted the last email we had received, and
Charlie's thoughts were concerned—I assumed, both for Renee and
also for our secret.

A
couple of hours later, his thoughts and Renesmee's thoughts both
started to slow, so I knew it was time to return home. I kicked
Jacob with the toe of my shoe (gently, since Charlie was watching)
and rose to gather everyone up. I heard Bella hold her breath to
prepare to hug Charlie good-bye, and I stayed with arms reach of
Bella, just in case. It really was easy to forget she was a newborn.

I
caught Jacob's eye as we returned to the car, and I saw him slip
into the car first and zip up Renesmee's diaper bag before Bella
reached the car to hand him the baby to put in her car seat. Bella
heard the zipper and looked at the diaper bag, but then shook her
head and turned back to wave at Charlie, more concerned with keeping
up her human façade than figuring out her strange werewolf friend's
bizarre behavior. We climbed in our car and zoomed for home, the
first phase of my plan complete, with Bella's camera safely hidden
behind me.

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